September 23, 2011

Fan tosses banana peel at Flyers' Simmonds: Often as the only black player on his team, growing up in Ontario, Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds dealt with his fair share of racial slurs on the ice as he climbed the hockey ladder. Few experiences could have prepared him for what happened on Thursday night, as a fan in the John Labatt Centre threw a banana peel at Simmonds as he skated in alone on a shootout attempt during a 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. According to a fan on Twitter at the game, it was not the only time Simmonds was targeted with a banana peel during the game. Another peel was thrown, presumably by the same person, when Simmonds scored late in the 3rd period to tie the game but the toss did not clear the boards to make it onto the ice.

Nice to see some of the classier traditions of European football making their way into North American sports.

Yeah, the classy North American tradition was always to avoid that kind of spectator idiocy by keeping black competitors in their own leagues. But anyway. The venue may not have been able to identify the fuckwit, but I imagine he (because it's going to be a he) will be the kind of person who brags about it, and when he does, I hope his friends have a tolerance bypass towards him.